Daydream Believer
by literatiwannabe
Summary: Jack's just walking down the hall of the Pentagon one day, innocent and unsuspecting.... COMPLETE


Title: Daydream Believer

Author: Christi

Rating: Uh, maybe PG because it could cause mass death by sugar overdose?

Timeline: Season 9, post-_Ripple Effect_

Category: A touch of melodramatic and easily resolved angst hiding amongst insane amounts of sappy S/J fluff. (Ahhh. Feels good to get back to my roots.)

Author's Note: Okay, so I think I'm trying to get out all of my fic debts out in one fell swoop. Let's see…llorelei asked for Sam/Jack in Washington. kate98 just wanted romance fic—not sure that this qualifies, but it's fluffy squee, so it comes close. And then, for fanfic10 with controlfreak80, this covers one or two (or, um, actually three, if you count one of the bonuses) of the prompts. So. Yes. I am daisycm83, the amazing multi-tasker! insert theme song here Also, yes, I know it's now becoming cliché to write post-_Ripple Effect_ fic, but uh…I love me some clichés? So, once again, controlfreak80 is my amazing insta-beta. Thanks!

--

Obviously, Jack had imagined this whole scenario before—probably more times than he'd like to admit, actually. But as he struggled to make out Sam's features in the tiny storage closet lit by only one flickering light bulb while simultaneously trying not to trip over an industrial-sized bottle of floor cleaner, he couldn't help but acknowledge that like most fantasies, this lost something in translation.

Finally, he asked, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Isn't this the part where you jump me?" That's how it always went in the daydreams, anyway—he walks down the hall unawares and is delightfully surprised when Carter drags him into the nearest storage closet and proceeds to have her way with him.

Apparently, admitting this is one of those things that in _reality_, gets you an annoyed slap on the arm instead of a quickie against the wall. Damn.

Rubbing his arm briefly, he shrugged. "Well, it was worth a shot," he said dryly. "So, what's up, Carter?"

She was biting her bottom lip—never a good sign. "I need to tell you something."

Again, not good. "And it's something that you couldn't tell me in my office?" Actually, now that it had occurred to him that raised a good point. "Carter, we're in the Pentagon."

"…So?"

"Soooo…" he drawled, "what are we doing in a storage closet at all? It's not like we need to be clandestine, here. We've been out of the chain of command for months now. Many long, pleasant months." Memories of said months swamped his mind and Jack couldn't stop the smirk—not that he would want to, really.

This, of course, seemed to annoy her further. "_Jack_."

He blinked, dissolving the images. "Right. Sorry. What was it you needed to tell me?"

As he watched, Sam seemed to gather herself, looking downright miserable. "I'm an idiot."

Disbelieving laughter was his immediate response. At her glare, he held up his hands. "Sorry, sorry. It's just…if you're an idiot, then there's _really_ no hope for the rest of us."

If anything, this just served to make her look even more depressed. Now, he was really starting to worry. One "C'mere" later, he had her gathered close, rubbing a hand up and down her spine in a smooth, repetitive motion. "So. Is the world ending?" After all, that was always a legitimate question in their line of work.

Because her face was now buried in her chest, it took some straining to hear the small little, "No" of her response.

"Well then, whatever it is can't be _that_ serious." Of this, at least, Jack was quite certain.

She pulled away just enough that he could see her face. "It's just…I mean, I can figure out black holes and singularities and broken DHDs…but I'm kind of an idiot about the important stuff."

Remembering his most recent sitrep from the SGC and suddenly seeing where this was going, Jack blinked. "Ah. Marty?"

"Yes. I can explain, though, because nothing happened, but I was all confused and he was there and Janet was there too and I missed them and it was just…but then the Asgard, and the evil alternate us, and I just…but I didn't and I'm really glad. But I'm sorry, because I'm with you and it was just me being stupid."

That was probably the most incomprehensible babble he had ever heard come out of Carter's mouth—and God knows he had heard some pretty insane stuff over the years. The whole conversation about riding an asteroid _through_ the Earth still gave him nightmares. Luckily, over the last few months, he had gotten more adept at speaking Carter, so somewhere in that mess, he had deciphered 'nothing happened', which was all he really needed to know. "Sam, it's fine."

Cue the wide blue eyes. "It is?"

He shrugged. "Well, I'm not exactly going to go dancing down the halls shouting 'my fiancée nearly made out with an alternate version of her dead snake's ex-lover', but yeah. We've all got…stuff. Marty is part of yours. I can deal with that because at the end of the day, I get _you_."

She blinked once, then again. "Oh. Good." One more blink, followed by a "Jack?"

"Yes, Carter?"

"We're not engaged."

Ah. That was a good point, actually. Best take care of that little detail. "Oh. Right. Wanna be?"

Now, _there_ was the Carter grin he had missed so much. "Yes, please."

He kissed her and that _really_ never got old. "Good. Now come on, let's track down some food. Successfully averting emotional crisis makes me hungry."

Obediently, she followed him out of the closet and they proceeded down the hall in search of sustenance. He kept his arm around her shoulders because, well, she was Carter and at the risk of seeming a bit sappy, he had missed her.

But the question had to be asked. "Carter?"

"Hrm?"

"Seriously. Why were we in the closet?"

She smiled an impish sort of smile. "Oh. That. Dragging you into a storage closet is just something I've always wanted to do."

And to think that she had slapped him on the arm for insinuating that very thing. Still, the fact that they had both considered the option meant in Jack's book that it was obviously a brilliant plan. As such, he paused in front of yet another storage closet. "Well, then, by all means…."

To his great astonishment, she proceeded to glance down the hall in either direction and then actually take him up on the offer, pulling him by the lapels into the small space and slamming the door behind them. And this time, it really _was_ as hot as he had always imagined it would be.

It was easy to guess where she was by following the sound of the giggling, and then she switched the light on and behold, a much happier Carter was gazing up at him. "I really do love you, you know," she informed him between giggles.

Somehow, he was starting to feel disturbingly sentimental about the whole situation, and the giant stacks of toilet paper were _not_ helping because they only made everything that much more surreal. Tenderly, he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, smiling all the while. "Carter, just shut up and kiss me already!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, sir."


End file.
